My Little Bro is Dapper!

So I have a very talented friend from high school that is a wedding photographer, & a very gifted one at that. In fact, the link to her fantastic blog is located on the right side of this blog. Check it out often to see some awesome photography :)

Definitely check out this post...

in it you will see my very dapper little bro (the oldest of my two little bro's) in the following pictures...

-he's the one 2nd from the left when they're toasting

-3rd from the left when they're relaxed against the wall

-3rd from the right when they're sitting down

-& 2nd from the bride when they're all standing up

Scotty was in this beautiful wedding on the 4th of July as a groomsman. One of his two roommates (who are each getting married within 2 months of each other) just tied the knot. Scotty has a very special group of guy friends that have known each other for 11 years now. They went to high school together & most of them even lived together when they went to Maryland together. Heck, one of them even married one of my best friends. Anyway, they're a really fun group of guys who always crack me up. When I teach the Drug Unit to my students I always share stories about them as examples of ways to have fun without drinking & using drugs because their stories from high school & college are hilarious. I mean rolling on the floor, clutching your sides, screaming & cackling laughing hilarious. Some of them are pictured here in a blog post from back in March...that's the groom in the center of the 1st pic.

Have fun browsing the beautiful pics from the day :)

4th of July Festivities

Our 4th of July was stellar & I'm hoping yours (all 3 of you that read this dear blog of mine) was awesome as well...

here's what Azzie did...

while I got to hang out with my cool California cousin & most of my Dad's side of the Bateman Clan :)

then we enjoyed a dip in my dad's hot tub...

where my Dad threw a hot dog at me...weirdo...

then it was off to dinner in downtown Fred-neck & fireworks in Baker Park with friends from our Young Marrieds Bible Study...

all in all...we had a blast with family & friends on a very fine holiday :)

U.S. = us

“Under the law of nature, all men are born free, every one comes into the world with a right to his own person, which includes the liberty of moving and using it at his own will. This is what is called personal liberty, and is given him by the Author”

-Thomas Jefferson

As I shirked the cover off of the bed this morning and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, I had to stop & think for a second...there is a quiet peace. Oh, there are some sounds...the morning dove in the sparse trees of the field next to our house that always coos throughout each early morning hour; our excited & hungry dog licking me like endlessly until I feed her her breakfast; the soothing tick of our clock in our family room; the faint wave of fabric tickling the windows as the morning breeze wafts through the house.

But, generally, there is a peaceful quiet...no shrill blast of bombs in the distance or worse off, close by; no pop of gun fire, or sharp screams that follow; no cries of despair as a family happens on their lifeless husband, father, son, nephew, or cousin that had been left in the streets to die during battle because it was to unsafe to pull them to safety while they were wounded.

As Thew & I visited DC in the Fall on a random day of the week that we happened to have off, we wandered over to the Korean War Memorial where Lincoln peripherally overseas the Mall when Thew snapped this picture at the top of this post. I paused for a long while looking at those words. I even traced over the cuts in the granite that formed those letters with my fingertips as if to really take in all that those three words meant. Those words have been soaked in blood for generations of the only few hundreds years that this country has existed.

All so that a simple girl like me could grow up in a land without threat of violence; so I could go to school & learn as much & for as long as I wanted, not limited by the fact that I am a woman, while in other countries schools may be too far away to walk to or worse off, I may not be allowed to attend because of my "lowly" gender; I can walk into a store where aisles & aisles of food are at my disposal to take home with me to feed my family...I can even walk into a building where I can order food & only seconds later it is on a tray, hot & ready for me to devour...where in other countries, children die every second from hunger & lack of the proper nutrients; I can worship & pray in public, without hiding behind locked doors & covered windows...even carry my Bible around & read it with my best friends in coffee shops & parks, while across the world Christians send secret letters & e-mails in code & meet in dark basements for church services, the penalty of death at stake if their faith is discovered.

I am free...but I am free at a price. That price has cost countless men & women their lives, especially one who thousands of years before this country was a even a glimmer in man's eye, hung on a tree & died for the vapor in the wind that is me (but that's another blog post entirely ;) For that, I am indebted to those men & women

...to the generations that never received the chance of life because their soldier would-be father was killed on the battlefield as a baby-faced teenager, leaving behind his stricken parents & bride-to-be who had been waiting for her fiance to come home after his tour so they could be married & start their own family

...I am indebted to the husband or wife who kissed their spouse goodbye longing for their next embrace, only to greet their return in black & stroking a wooden box that now holds their beloved's body, another casualty of war

...I am indebted to the soldier who spends the rest of their life without a precious limb, bound to prosthetic or power chair due to the blast that killed their company & had them clinging to life throughout the months of excruciating rehab so they could function in what used to be simple tasks like taking a shower or feeding themselves

...I am indebted to the man or woman who left their innocence in the country they fought in, bringing back with them the haunting images of what they have seen war do to people or what war has made them do...it greets them each time they close their eyes, despite the endless hours in counseling where they battle those old demons to not swallow them up

...I am indebted to my family members & friends who have proudly enlisted because "it's the right thing to do" letting their stark bravery mask any fear of the cost of what serving our country may mean for their life...like my cousin, a Navy SEAL, who due to honoring his oath of maintaining national security to our country, can't even share with us how much of a hero he is

Despite the fact that we are a nation that has slipped in sin countless times & teeters on the brink of the planned democracy our founding fathers originally designed, I AM PROUD OF MY COUNTRY. I will always fly an American Flag on my front porch so that that the rays of the "dawns early light" may shine through it's fabric and the beams of the "twilights last gleaming" may kiss it's colors before the moon rises in the sky. I love our country & love this day :)

This Week...

At 5:45 this morning, Thew's alarm buzzed loud in my ear & tried as best as I could to roll over & ignore the sounds of his morning routine so I could get some more shut eye after the fireworks that kept me awake past 10:30 (who lets off fire works for 30 minutes staring at 10:00 PM almost a week before the 4th of July anyway?). It was a Sunday night for crying out loud...ok, I know I'm getting old by writing that, but seriously, some of us have dogs that lick your face until you wake up at 6:00 AM to feed them & don't care that you didn't get your 8 hours.

I digress...at what seemed like a minute later, he was giving me a hug & a kiss goodbye. I won't see him again until the end of the week :(

I don't do well with not seeing my husband & I actually don't mind feeling this way...after all, marriages were meant to be experienced together. It's probably a warning sign that things aren't the way they should be if I don't feel like a part of me is missing when he's not around for a while. Remembering that doesn't make it any easier, though.

Where's he at, do you ask? Here...

doing this...

with our old college mascot in the sand...

Now, he is actually "working" this week as well...if you can call coaching B-Ball Camp at Northside Park in OC "working"...we don't really. We're very blessed to be able to not have to work during the 8 weeks we have off each Summer, but who are we kidding here? If you know Thew & I at all, we don't do well with having nothing on our schedule. Do we like the occasional days when we have "NOP" (no outside plans) & we can do whatever we want because nothing is on the schedule...YES. But 8 weeks of that? No thank you...that's what would get done, absolutely nothing.

So since this is the 5th Summer that we've been married, we're sticking to the usual plan of finding odd & end jobs to keep us busy, build up our savings, & earn some "Summer fun money". Thew's working 4 camps & I'm working for the county tweaking our Health & PE curriculum for 3 weeks. Because work overlaps a little for us, we only have 3 weeks off together (which we plan to spend doing house projects that have been neglected throughout the year), as well as go away for our 4th Anniversary (but that's for another blog post :)

So hopefully, by the end of the week, I will be doing this...

posing for some shots like this...

with this handsome man...

when I join Thew at the ocean :)

but until then, I'll be hanging out with this chica...

having some girls time with my fav Fred-neck friends...

host the boys in the Bateman fam for dinner & a night of enjoying our new flat screen...

& miss gabbing & hanging out with my best friend....

at least I get to catch up on some things & (more importantly) spend some time with some of the other awesome people in my life...

& at least Thursday's not too far away :)

Squeakers

This is something that we do to try & stimulate Aslan's problem solving skills...to no avail.  We do this with her pretty often & she still doesn't understand that she's supposed to bite the toy to pull it out or push it...even though we do it for her all the time.

This is one of Aslan's favorite toys. Between her buoy or "boat toy," Kong, & her "buddy"...squeakers drives her nuts. The sound of that squeaking when it's compressed makes her head twist so that her right ear touches the sky followed quickly by her left whipping directly up to where her right ear just was (you dog parents know just what I'm talking about, right?).

Watching her is hilarious...okay, maybe to us only, but that's okay. I'm posting it anyway.

enjoy...

Squeakers from Matthew & Lynsey Fohner on Vimeo.

This Time Next Week...

...we will be DONE with our 4th year of teaching!!!

Until then, you will find me channeling this,

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

-Philippians 4:13

Wordless Wednesday :)

As some of you may know, Thew dabbles in photography (one of his favorite hobbies besides Socom) fairly often & I know I'm a little biased here, but I think he really has a gift.

When I was in my senior year of college, my mom took me on an amazing graduation trip Italy to visit my awesome Aunt Martha.  The three of us traveled about Milan, Florence, Venice, & Rome for days in awe, snapping as many pictures as we could in...just soaking up the sights, learning about the culture, & eating long, leisurely meals in places that were so beautiful it was hard to keep your jaw from dropping while you chewed.

A few months after we got back, we met for a reunion dinner at the "most, best" (inside joke) local Italian restaurant, which was a bad idea because at that point we knew what real Italian food tasted like & everything seemed a bit blander than before.  Anyway, as we looked at our pictures together, I realized that it looked like my Aunt had been on a completely separate vacation.  The angles & way she shot her pictures were truly beautiful & amazing.  I seriously held her and my pictures side by side & wondered if we really were visiting the same place each day.  She really has an eye and a gift of how to use her camera, the lighting, & manipulate other elements to make you see something in a new way.

That is what it's like taking pictures alongside Thew.  It's actually very intimidating for a competitive person like me, which, of course, he thinks is hilarious & uses to get a good laugh.  Every time we go somewhere where he brings his digital SLR & I bring his old point & shoot I get all excited to learn new tips from him.  I purposely put myself at angles I don't think he would & scroll through option upon option of flashes & lighting on the features to get that best shot that will rival his.  Alas, it is to no avail.  We speed home & download our pics & I sit in wonder about how we both went to the same place.  Seriously, he's pretty good.

So in honor of Wordless Wednesday (pretty creative, huh?), check it out...I know I tend to loose my speech over some of these shots  :)

doubt

Thew & I watched a great movie tonight...put on some comfy clothes, lounged on the couch in the comfortable way we do (with Aslan even joining us) & settled in to enjoy a rarity.

A movie, nominated for a few academy awards, that was actually really good.  As a movie buff who still gets goosebumps before a movie begins & the previews start to roll, who still feels the excitement of a little kid about to indulge in their favorite habit when the production studio's lion roars or that little boy sitting on the crescent moon throws his lore in the water & watches the ripples (you other movie buffs know what I mean)...it amazes me how excited I get when I see a good movie.  You see, like most of you reading this, you have probably been where I have been in the past decade or two.  You set yourself up to watch what you think will be a great movie...you heard it was good from so and so, it had this amazing cinematography or that famous actor who always makes a great choice in a role & you watch as your expectations are dashed when the movie disappoints.

Now I would definitely label myself as a conservative movie watcher.  As I have gotten older & learned more, I have slowly whittled my movie collection down from movies that may have been wonderful to me at the time (only because I chose to overlook a scene or two that maybe wasn't edifying due to language or another much more offensive action) down to a smaller collection that is more appropriate for a God fearing woman like myself.  This has taken a lot of effort and strength to try and take a step back and truly think, if Jesus was coming over to hang out & watch a flick, would I want to watch this with him?  Some of you may think that's a little too much to think that, but Thew & I disagree.  You see, our marriage is founded on Him...He is the most honored guest in our home & Thew and I think it would be the most amazing & entertaining evening if Jesus could physically stop by our house for the evening to hang out.  When people ask you that question about if you could have dinner with anyone (dead or alive) who would it be, we both would automatically have Him on our list.  The more I read my Bible, the more I believe that while He was on earth (and even now), no one could ever leave an encounter with Him unchanged & if they didn't want to admit that, they were hardening more than just their hearts.

Anyway, I digressed a little bit there, didn't I?  I hope you don't mind...I tend to do that a lot, don't I?  All well...  :)

If you haven't had the pleasure of watching "Doubt", please do.  Sit back, take an hour and 40 minutes without distractions, and think.  There's so much to this movie I don't even want to give away any of it or talk about it in a forum (though I secretly would, but I don't have the time for that now  :).

Just trust me, rent it, watch it...if you do, let me know what you think.  I, for one, wanted nothing more than to play it again once the end credits started to roll so I could try and pick up on more.  The four wonderful actors were superb and there is so much subtlety that I think I might form a different opinion on what each character meant with every statement each time I watch it.  There was only one whispered bad word that you can barely hear, no one even wore anything inappropriate...now there were things that were implied that were disturbing, but the thing is that you never really know.  Nobody ever truly talks about anything...everything is skirted in a way that you think somebody's gotta reveal something, but then, nothing is.  Oh, I wish we got to know some of these characters a little more...they were so intriguing!  And best of all, when a character shares a secret about another character & Hollywood had the chance to have a Christian judge that character in the way the world often thinks Christians do, the director chose to rather have that Christian show compassion.  You get the watch the intimacy of how spending just a little over 1 hour watching someone can change your opinion of them entirely...you see through their hardened shell into their soul & wonder with them why things happen the way they do.  And then you realize that it's not up to us to know & that we need to be okay with that.  That we really don't have control like we think we do & that God allows things to happen because he gave us the gift of free will so that we're not His robots.  He desires for us to use our free will so that we can be all that we are supposed to be, but unfortunately, it doesn't always work out that way.  And you know what?  This girl wouldn't want it any other way, despite the unimaginable hardships, trials, and struggles it brings...there is a greater good, a greater purpose, and a greater work going on than we ever could even fathom & I for one, can wait to see how it all works out...

now THAT'S what makes a good movie  :)

Memorial Day Weekend...you took a long time to get here!

Ahhh, Memorial Day Weekend...

...do you know what I had to get through to have you get here?

...five 5-day weeks in a row (don't even think about saying that that's not challenging until you step into a classroom & try to do it!  Much less teach a class that doesn't have children confined to chairs, but chucking 6 lb. metal shot puts, hard rubber discus', & running full speed around a track when other kids aren't paying attention and have to dart out of the way...whew...okay, we're all still intact, praise God!)...

...I know there were other things that I had to get through to get to you, but right now, I can't even think & don't want to think...I just want to sit...

...& veg...

...& eat...

...& do nothing but see family...

...watch countless movies...

...and spend some much QT with my new Beth Moore Bible Study "Breaking Free"...

...I think we'll hang out with these peeps...

& get some quality time with this little one (who isn't so little anymore)...

& then we'll go see these people...

& these people...

& take walks around this...

& this...

& walk across this...

& stroll along this path...

or maybe up here...

ahhh...Memorial Day Weekend...

...it's been too long since I've seen you last...

...& I can't wait to spend these next 3 days enjoying your presence  :)

Quote of the Day...

Tonight, after a sweet peck that even over 6 years after our first one still melts me every time, my dear husband kept his arms around me tight, looked me in the eyes, smirked his classic goofy smile and said,

"We can clean the house together tomorrow."

All I could do was sigh contently & think that there is nothing better I would rather do with my Friday night.

I'm a pretty lucky gal, ain't I?

To My Two Favorite Mommas...

"A mother is not a person to lean on, but a person to make leaning unnecessary."

-Dorothy Canfield Fisher

"A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie."
-Tenneva Jordan

"Men are what their mothers made them."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

oh, dear...

Fohner Family Update: 6 Month Rewind

There will be more pics to follow this (as I get the time to upload them...we'll see how that goes), but I realized that unless we talk to you fairly often, I've kept my faithful readers (all 3 of you) in the dark about what's been going on with us lately.

By lately, I mean since November...eeek, I'm horrible.  Scrolling through, I have realized that since Matt turned 29 almost 6 months ago, I haven't shared pretty much anything about what's been going on in our life...just mindless posts with funny videos about leprechauns & dogs, surveys, why where I grew up is awesome, & sentimental stuff about Thew, our young pup, & my momma.

So because I have been super bad here's a quick, phrased summary of what's been happening...aaannnddd go...

...some of our best friends from our Young Marrieds Small Group, Charlie & Christa became Mr. & Mrs. Rodger (& just bought their first home...yay!)...

...watched our fav GA-native family move from Fred-neck to Guam for 3 years & cried like babies watching them leave our Young Marrieds Small Group a little less whole (miss you Lee, Tif, Lyrik, Lenden, & Kinslee...sooo much!)...

...my daddy turned 60-minus-4 (we count backwards from decades in the Bateman family, which makes me less than 4 months shy from 30-minus-3...yikes)...

...I had a fabulous Bachelorette Weekend Party with my momma, her best friend, & her daughter a month shy of my mom's wedding at the Cambridge Hyatt (fabulous)...

...spent Thanksgiving break with Thew's huge family (his mom, her husband, Thew's 3 older sisters, their husbands, & our 9 nephews & nieces...super funness  :)...

...honorably served as my mom's Matron of Honor when she married Todd (super surreal, but had a blast)...

...celebrated Christmas with our 4 families (ironically around the time that "Four Christmas" came out in theaters...both sets of mine & Thew's parents are divorced...& yes, we're very busy around any holiday)...

...Thew took part in his annual post-Christmas trip back to OC with Ed while I had Christmas parties with my best friends from home & here (LOVE my ladies)...

...remembered my paternal grandfather on the anniversary of his death (whom I never had the honor of meeting since he passed away 6 years before I was born...I hope he's with Jesus so I can meet him one day)...

...sadly watched the sinking Steelers win the Super Bowl (thankfully safely surrounded by other non-Steeler fans with our Young Marrieds Small Group friends...seriously people, we are not that close to Pittsburgh to have that many Pitt fans when we are less than 40 mins. away from Baltimore)...

...Ash & I took turns hosting some awesome events for the Youth Group Girls including a sleepover where I surprisingly got to sleep for a consecutive 6 hours without getting my hands dipped in warm water or lipstick on my face...

...celebrated our 7th Valentine's Day together (though not really, I'm kinda anti-Valentine's Day & other made up, Hallmark holidays...but Thew & I had a great time taking a night to chill out & just be together).  We also got to celebrate with Barnette's, Ash's parents, & their best friends at the annual Husbands-Pamper-The-Wives-Dinner)...

...found out I'm getting transferred to another school for the 2nd year in a ROW (I was moved from the High School Level down to Middle School Level because I took a break from coaching last year & now am being moved again because our enrollment went down making it not necessary to have 5 PE Teachers at our school anymore [me being the newbie to the school made me the unfortunate candidate])...this was a blow because I'm finally at a school that I really like teaching at with a department that rocks & has made me feel at home (I have thankfully been blessed to always work with a great department at all the schools I've taught at for the past 5 years)...

...found out as a HUGE answer to prayer that I'll be able to stay at the Middle School Level here in the county since a new PE position was created at another Middle School (their enrollment went up) close by our house (Middle Schoolers are my favorite to teach...possibly because I'm married to one that has their same maturity level?  That's up for debate)...

...got all sappy when we celebrated the 4th Anniversary of when we got engaged, which was right after our 2 Year Dating Anniversary (ahhh, memories)...

...spent an awesome weekend at the Grandparent's with my little bro's & Thew and had a blast with them & my Grandparent's best friends who always have the coolest stories (they are the equivalent of Kyle, Ashley, Thew, & I 60 years from now)...

...took 2 random days off to chill in SP & see my two fav SAHM (Stay-At-Home-Moms) & their baby girls...

...remembered my paternal Grandmother on the anniversary of her passing who I was able to spent 15 years loving before she succumbed to a long battle against lung cancer (if you use tobacco, please, for the sake of your family & friends, quit.  I have lost both my dad's parents to the deathly effects of tobacco use.  Todd, if you're reading this, you better quit before you make my mom a young widow...seriously!!!)...

...celebrated a slew of family & friend's b-days (Aslan's 3rd, Kyle's 27th, Rache's 26th, Pammie's 26th, Scotty's 25th, Jake's 28th, Heather's & Shannon's (I won't mention your ages b/c I know you don't want me to), my Grandma's 77th, as well as the actual birth day of Thew's God Daughter, Gianna...sooo beautiful!)...

...visited Ash's parent's Shabin in WV for a weekend with her parents, Kyle, Ash, her little sis, & Thew and had a blast helping them build their dream home on the mountain...

...Thew finished his season with his JV B-Ball Team only losing 4 games during the whole 4 months they played & helped coach the Varsity team to the Regional Finals of the State Tournament for the 3 year in a row...

...spent another amazing weekend at the Cambridge Hyatt with Mom, Todd, the little bro's, Thew, & my mom's best friend's family (that place is magical)...

...celebrated Easter with our 4 families (traveling from the Eastern Shore to Southern MD to VA & back...lots of time away from home, but so much fun)...

...spent a day together in DC taking pics & reminiscing about all the awesome memories I have from growing up with multiple visits there with family (Museum of Natural History, you will always be my fav)...

...watched the Wizards lose (go figure) with Mom, Todd, the little bro's, & Thew and ran into one of our friends from FCA in college (we miss your awesome fellowship, Damien!)...

...spent a day in NY exploring Central Park, taking tons of pics, & fattening ourselves with NY's finest cuisine...

...watched Thew preach an awesome sermon on how important it is to stay in God's Word to the Youth at one of our Coffee House Nights...

...continued our monthly tradition of Game Nights with our Small Group where the wives always mercilessly beat the husbands in any game we play  :)...

...started studying Ephesians & learning so much with my fav Fred-neck ladies (our original group of 5 has doubled since we first started studying together over 2 & 1/2 years ago...it's been awesome to see how God has grown our fellowship...to think that I was so lonely & knew none of the girls when I moved here just 4 years ago & how blessed I have been by their friendships once God brought us together)... 

...attended the Senior Night of the Varsity Girls Lax Team I used to coach & sat in awe of how some of them thanked me in their speeches when they didn't even know I was going to be there (you always hope you make an positive impact on the kids you teach & coach...love those girls)...

...lost horribly 18-5 to the current Salisbury team in the Alumni Lax Game, which isn't too shabby since they've been ranked #1 almost their entire season & we were missing our goalie who had just given birth only 48 hours prior (congrats, Justin, Ali, & little Noah)...was thrilled that I scored 2 goals & an assist considering I haven't played in a game since stopping playing club ball over a year & a half ago (I still got it somewhere down deep)...

...finally, after almost 4 years of living in our home, getting some landscaping done & realizing that I LOVE yard work now that we own a home...

WHEW...okay, that brings us to today where Thew & Kyle will be getting some much needed stuff done around our house while I head to out to lunch with the women in my mom's side of the family for a Mother's Day Brunch...gotta go...

Until next time...Fohner Family ouuut  :)